Question: Thank you for your response, Brian. Response was Though, often confused to be two parts of the same coin, in terms of research studies, population and sample are two different concepts. As Donnelly (n.d.) has pointed out, the primary difference between population and sample lies in the fact, while population in the sphere of statistics, represent all possible measurements or outcomes that interest the researcher in a particular study; sample "refers to a portion of the population that is representative of the population from which it was selected."For accomplishing my research objectives, I will be in need of medium-sized sample because this would allow me to obtain precise subjective views on the topic of concern. Moreover, apart from size, I should emphasize the degree of qualification prevailing within those who would constitute the sample. Moreover, to turn the research into an effective one, I should be using measures of spread to summarize a group of data by elaborating on how the scores are spread out (Laerd Statistics, 2013).
You seem to lean towards a "medium sized" sample size for your study but as you can imagine, this is all relative. You can have a population size of 1 million or 1 thousand so what does "medium" mean in this context? Based on the parameters of your research, what is the most representative population in your study? Based on that answer, what are the characteristics of this population? Please share your thoughts and feedback.